The clean-up on the Lower Platte River was great. We had so much fun meeting everyone, paddling, and taking care of our environment. The weather was supposed to be okay, but it ended up being beautiful considering all the rain we had had in the last week.
Twenty people ended up attending the river clean-up. We started out hauling all the boats down to the water, and learning how to paddle. We saw a water snake slither by on the water, and couldn’t wait to start and see more wildlife! We unloaded all our gear, and headed off. Gliding on the water, we looked down, but to our surprise, we didn’t see much trash. However, we found PLENTY!
Some of the most interesting things we found were…
-Combs
-Tiny radio
-Lighter
-Many different shoes
-Kayak hatch cover
-Socks
-Full PowerAde bottle
-And much, much, much more
We stopped at the Fish Weir, to have lunch and admire all of the trash we had found in this river.
At the end of the trip we found enough trash to fill seven big bags. If we do this again we will ought to find less! WOW, we have really made a difference. (The rangers collected all our trash at the end as we unloaded the boats so we never got a photo of our total haul.)
Several times, it was a group effort to just get one small piece of trash. Once, eight people contributed in helping get one glass bottle. At the end of the river and seeing the dunes, we knew we had made a difference and that was a great feeling! We loved the trip and can’t wait to do it again!
Photo of Paige and Lois
Photo of Abby trying out Karen's kayak
-Paige and Abby